Doomed Pilot Warned Second Plane in Africa : Tanzania: Ten American tourists are confirmed dead in crash into volcano that also killed guide and pilot. Seven flying in another aircraft avert disaster.

They were headed from one world-famous game reserve to another, traveling on an African dream safari, when their charter aircraft slammed into the slope of an ancient volcano in northern Tanzania.

Ten Americans, including a man from Huntington Beach, on their way from Serengeti National Park to Kenya’s Masai Mara reserve died in Wednesday’s crash. But as rescue workers clambered through a heavily forested ravine Thursday to recover the remains--as well as those of their Tanzanian guide and Tanzanian pilot--one small miracle emerged.

In the last seconds of his life, the pilot managed to warn a second plane carrying seven other American tourists to change altitude to escape bad flying conditions. That plane arrived safely.

The U.S. State Department released the names of the 10 Americans on Thursday, but the task of identifying the bodies was likely to take several days because the plane apparently crashed at high velocity into Mt. Meru.

The victims were identified as Jeffrey and Christine Bowersock, a married couple from New Jersey; Betsy Hoffman of New York and her two sons, Robert Ennis of Florida and Cameron Ennis of Connecticut; William Putterman and Virginia Cox of Florida; Steven Putterman of Massachusetts; Norman Dolan of Huntington Beach; and MaryAnne Rizzuti of Washington state.

Northern Air pilot Christopher Perreira and guide Wilson Meiriali also died in the crash of the Northern Air Cessna 404, officials said.

Air traffic controllers at the small airport in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha said they monitored a final message from Perreira warning the pilot of a second Northern Air plane to change altitude.

The second aircraft arrived safely at Kilimanjaro International Airport, and the family of six and a friend continued their safari in Kenya. It was not possible to immediately contact the group, and it was not clear whether they knew that the first plane had gone down.

The 17 Americans were on a trip organized by Abercrombie & Kent, one of the largest tour companies running upscale safaris to East Africa from around the globe.

It was the second disaster in a year for Abercrombie & Kent. The company was one of several groups that ran lodging camps for treks to see mountain gorillas in Uganda’s Bwindi National Park in March, where eight foreign tourists were abducted and killed by Rwandan Hutu rebels who had crossed into Uganda.